We interrupt our regular guest blog program

Good morning all! Laurel here while Carp is off with Mr. T. We hit a tiny snag with our guest blog plan for today, but aim to get something new and wonderful up for your reasoned commentary soon. In the meantime, here’s a fresh thread so folks can start the day without having to go through last night’s Rangers Report songbook.

Bonus points to anyone who can get through the day without mentioning a certain number 1, 2 or 3 rated d-man.

After this Kovalgate (as somebody wittily called it yesterday, sorry yesterday’s string is too long to go back and properly attribute) stuff, I was hoping Sundin would come back to the NHL so we could have some simple contract negotiations this summer.

I know you guys hate him, so I thought this news might spark up the blog:

New contract keeps Kaleta home, happy

atrick Kaleta gets a new contract, gets to stay home to play for the Buffalo Sabres and gets to avoid going to arbitration. Now you know why the Angola native was all smiles Wednesday afternoon in HSBC Arena.

The 24-year-old winger signed a two-year, $1.815 million deal with the Sabres, thus avoiding his July 29 hearing that was scheduled when the team made him the only NHL player facing club-elected arbitration.

I was thinking about this. When I was a kid, I was so excited when the rangers would sign anyone with a name that I KNEW. Didn’t matter their age or for how much, just it was some star or over the hill star, that it didn’t matter in my young mind. Now, I feel completely different, as do most of you. I want to see a star develop. I hope Sather is serious about developing and building a core group. We have to have some vets, but we need vets who still compete and care and lead by example. I think we have some good young youth, but it looks SOOOOOOO good to us, partly because we are not used to having a lot of kids in the lineup until recently. I think I, and some of us get blinded by that sometimes. Sometimes youth doesn’t always mean that we will get better over the years, and some of our youth could have possibly already hit their ceiling, but we don’t know, you can never really know. But that is sports, right? It is a crap shoot sometimes. Obviously there are exceptions, but who knows what any of the kids are going to do.

Nasty, I know exactly what you mean. Everyone is pegging Stepan and Kreider into top center roles, Grachev into a top wing spot, McDonagh and McIlrath into top defensive roles, etc, when for all we know, each of those guys could just as equally be the next Hugh Jessiman, P.A. Parenteau, Tomas Pock, or the aforementioned Bryce Lampman.

Also remember that performance in the minors means nothing about performance in the NHL. That’s why Jason Krog isn’t in the NHL, despite being a superstar in the AHL.

I think the Rangers right now are doing a good job. Ever since Tortorella took over there has been a considerable youth movement. Just look at our farm system right now. We have lots of promising young prospects as well as good young players already established in the team.

I think Prospal and Christensen at 2-3 mil between them are a great way to fill holes without making long-term commitments.

Every summer my Rangers mug is half full. By mid-January the team has been making it half empty for me.

The shame about all these kids being inserted into the line-up is that they’re learning in a locker room filled with indifference or division. Hopefully that can change soon before the current crop indoctrinates the attitude and the next crop is introduced to it.

I know nasty, I just put my little twist of sunshine on it. I’m not blind to the odds of a prospect making a difference in the NHL, but I would rather see a bunch of kids trying their hearts out who may not have the skills to bring the team to the playoffs than a bunch of retreads who go flat after the first few bumps in the season and tune out the coach and the team. I’d rather come up short than fall flat.

I’m also cautiously hopeful about our youth. An important aspect of their development will be what they learn from the veterans on this team. Hopefully, our much maligned Captain and Vinny Prospal will be great teachers. There’s a lot to learn… how to train, practice, travel, handle the press etc. Frankly, I’m less concerned about making the playoffs this year than I am about seeing our players develop as a competitive team with growth on a year to year basis.

All due respect, but these kids (Krieder, McDonagh, Stepan etc.) are so far removed from Pock and Jessiman. You are not even the the same league when talking about the old prospects.

The last Rangers center to be rated as high a prospect as Stepan, was Dough Weight. The ones in between (Dube, Sundstrom, Lundmark) not even in the same league, not even close.

Also, Kreider is projected as a winger in the NHL.

I know its tough for Rangers fans, because their prospects have failed so often. But this crop of kids that Gordy Clark has assembled, are nothing like the kids from the past. Don’t even speak them in the same breath.

I too hope that Mara gets picked up ( he’s still in the wind last time I looked) and I never understood why he was let go.

ASome of these new mentions we;ve not seen here, but we know what Mara is capable of, and I’d like to see him back.

BTW

Noticed something that caught my eye in the Post blogs when someone used the term Nimrod to represent someone unskilled and a bit of a dim wit.. I’ve also heard Rush and Hannity use the term in the same situaitons…wonder if they ever stopped to find out who Nimrod really was. In fact he was mythically known as a mighty hunter and sagacious warrior…not a first order dope.